The Citroen H Van and French chic

In the town near where I live, there’s a very nice guy who has set up a mobile cafe from a van like this…a Citroen H van, apparently. I had to look that up, as I didn’t know the name, but it has been something that has been lodged in my head as being as quintessentially French as croissants or brie. In my mid teens, I was something of a Francophile, reading Sartre and hoovering up 1960s films by the nouvelle vague directors, films which almost invariably included a van like this. It all seemed so chic, so Parisian.

Later, I’d get to experience Paris first hand, and sit in Left Bank cafes still reading Sartre, drinking wine and, for a short time, smoking Gauloises or Gitanes cigarettes.

I’ve visited Paris so many times now I’ve lost count, as well as visiting other parts of the country both as a ‘textile’ tourist and naturist holiday maker. J’adore France…as they say.

When I cycle into town I now invariably buy a cup of coffee from the man with the H van because of the van! It just summons up something familiar and warming, for me.

Incidentally, the name of the town on the side of it, Frontignan, is a real world place that I’ve been to! It’s just along the coast from Cap D’Agde, and I’ve also stayed at a campsite called Camping le Sérignan-Plage Nature, visiting Frontignan on both occasions I’ve stayed nearby. So by some weird SL synchronicity, it’s perhaps appropriate that Diane, by chance, just happened to have undertaken the shoot that she did.